Granny Panties
by Arii-hime
Summary: Broken rules, Easy-Bake Ovens and unsexiness leads to a seven a.m. mall trip. AU oneshot.


Oh my fudge I'm sorry for being gone so long everyone...

Thank you all for the favorites and reviews I've gotten while I was MIA (because I still read my email ofc) and I've missed you guys so much so here's a random lame story to make up for it yeah

**DISCLAIMER:** Even after all of this time...I still don't own Gakuen Alice.

* * *

**_Granny Panties_**

Hotaru should have known something was up when Mikan showed up at her door, early and unannounced - on a Saturday morning.

It remained an unspoken agreement between them that having to wake up early five days out of the seven in a week was really quite bothersome, especially if one happened to stay up late the night before doing homework or a last-minute project, or they just plain didn't feel like going to school. Therefore, the Late Afternoon Weekend rule was quickly established without a word and respected at all times. It was something along the lines of _One girl is not to pester the other in any way, shape, or form, unless the time is past 12 p.m. or both girls happen to be awake before previously stated time._ Anything else, and the consequence was verbal abuse and possibly a temporary friendship renouncement.

But here she was, at seven a.m., breaking the rule, babbling something about a mall.

Hotaru's inital reaction was to punch Mikan in her temple, which she did without hesitation. She had been up late Friday night, finishing up her weekend homework early in a typical Imai fashion, all while fending Ruka off over the phone who kept hollering _DID SHE TAKE THAT PICTURE OF HIM WITH THE PUPPIES AND SEND IT TO THE SCHOOL NEWSPAPER!?_ and calming a feud between Anna and Nonoko through IMs - something about ketchup and methane gas. Finally she crawled into bed at three a.m., reveling in the thought that no one would bother her before 12 p.m. And then Mikan showed up.

So she made sure to put all of her irritation and anger into that punch, just so Mikan would know that she was beyond _not pleased_ and that this was almost worth a temporary friendship renouncement. Mikan yelped pitifully, but there was a hint of remorse in her eyes past the pain, which showed that at least she knew the crime she'd just committed.

"I know, I know!" she said before Hotaru could even open her mouth. "It's not after 12 p.m., which means - owww! - I completely broke the rule, which puts me at your mercy, but I - yeowch! _Hotaru_! Can't you at least let me _explain_?"

"I'm running on four hours of sleep here, Mikan."

But she was giving her that doe-eyed look, that look she absolutely despised because it made her feel guilty even though she had no reason to feel guilty, because she _clearly_ wasn't the one at fault here. And even with the four hours of sleep she was running on at the moment, Hotaru felt that she should at least listen before brushing her off, so she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms expectantly.

Mikan clapped her hands. "I was thinking that we should go to the mall today!"

"..."

Hotaru promptly stepped back and started to close the door in her face.

"Hey, wait!" Mikan stuck her hand in between the door and its frame so she couldn't close it. "Pretty please? I know that you're mad at me now because I woke you up early but please please _please_ can you come to the mall with me? I don't know who else to ask!"

"Well, let's see." Hotaru swung the door open again and began counting on her fingers. "There's Ruka, Natsume, Yuu, Sumire, Anna, Nonoko, You-chan, Koko, Kitsuneme, Misaki, Tsubasa, and Aoi. Not to mention that weirdo Yura, the pervert Tono, and—"

"_OKAY_! Okay, I get it!" Mikan dropped on her knees and hugged Hotaru's legs. "But you're my bestest bestest friend ever, and none of them would understand the reason why we're going to the mall!"

She raised an eyebrow. "We're going to the mall for a _reason_?"

"Yes! So can you come with me, please?"

Hotaru had to contemplate this for a few seconds; on one hand, she was wasting precious sleeping time for a reason that had yet to be revealed. On the other hand, if it was bad enough that Mikan couldn't go to anyone else but her, she could take pictures and use them as blackmail or sell them to the school newspaper.

"...I'll be ready in five minutes," she said tonelessly, closing the door. "Start the car."

* * *

And it was no more than ten minutes of Mikan's horrendous driving and Hotaru questioning to herself how she even got a license when Hotaru found herself walking into the entrance of the local mall.

"So where are we going?" she asked. Mikan had begun to fidget with the ends of her pigtails in a manner that made Hotaru extremely suspicious. And why were they at the mall so early, anyways? She doubted that traffic had anything to do with it.

"We're, uh...going to..." At that moment, they walked past a Victoria's Secret store, and the tips of Mikan's ears turned red as she stopped. Hotaru stopped too and blinked, then (mentally) facepalmed as the pieces fell together.

"Don't tell me you got me up at seven a.m. just to go to a lingerie store," she exclaimed. "Do you even know what lingerie _is_?" She then remembered that she was running on four hours of sleep and wondered why she had even agreed to this.

Meanwhile, Mikan whirled on her, mouth wide open in protest. "O-of course I know what lingerie is! Geez, Hotaru! I'll have you know I'm a lingerie _expert_!" She puffed her chest out and Hotaru could barely stifle the laugh she felt bubble up.

"...Have you ever even taken a step in the remote direction of this store?"

"Y-yeah! Have you!?"

"I've never had any use for lingerie, thank you very much. I can seduce people without wearing sexy underwear to assist me, unlike you, it seems." Hotaru crossed her arms as Mikan's face turned mercury red. "Now, before I lose my patience and start with the serious verbal abuse, care to tell me why we're here?"

She didn't think it was possible for someone to turn redder than Mikan already was. But, alas.

"Uh, w-w-well...it's a long story..." she mumbled, twiddling her thumbs and letting out a nervous laugh. "How about we wait until we're done?" Before she could run, however, Hotaru had a firm grip on her arm and pointed to the metal gate blocking the door and the sign on it, which read "closed".

"If you'd been here before, you'd have known that they open up at eight, not seven," she said impatiently at her expression, which bled _oh crap_. "Now, about that 'long story'."

Thankfully, Mikan caved instantly and threw her arms up in the air in defeat. "Okay, fine! Yesterday I was over at Natsume's house keeping him company because he had to 'babysit' Aoi. And Youichi came over too and he stole Aoi's Easy-Bake Oven that she used to play with as a kid and laughed at her while she chased him around screamed _YOUICHI IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME BACK MY OVEN I'M GONNA CUT YOU I SWEAR_ and I laughed at her too but not in a mean way and then - " Mikan caught her breathwhile Hotaru tried to make sense of the story and where it was leading.

" - Natsume said _I don't know why you're laughing_ and I said _Why shouldn't I laugh?_ and he said _At least she grew up_ and I yelled _What does that mean!?_ and then he flipped my skirt and said I wore granny panties and that I'd never be sexy _ever_!"

_...Oh._

"And your response was...?" she said dubiously, already anticipating the answer.

"I took Aoi's Easy-Bake Oven and threw it at his face and called him a pervert!" _I knew it,_ Hotaru thought. "He's a big stupid perverted idiot who doesn't know anything!" Hotaru started when Mikan grabbed her hand, a determined light in her eyes.

"But I'm gonna prove to him that I can be sexy, Hotaru! _I'm gonna make him pop a boner!_"

She had no idea where she picked that phrase up from, and was satisfied with not knowing.

"And the only way I can do that is to stop wearing what he thinks are 'granny panties'!" she continued, clenching her fist. "I have grown up, and if he can't see that, then I'm gonna shove it in his face until he accepts it!"

Hotaru rubbed her temple. "You're getting way too hyper over this. He's your _boyfriend_, you idiot."

"So!?"

With that response, she saw no use in explaining the obvious fact that he only called her unsexy because he liked the fact that she didn't try to seem sexy and already thought she was sexy but he would never admit that unless he was put in a situation in which he absolutely _had_ to, so she sighed, "Never mind." Sometimes she could be as stubborn as him.

Mikan seemed satisfied with that, and she grabbed Hotaru in a death squeeze. "I knew you'd understand, Hotaru!" she squealed. "That's why you're my best friend and I love you - oww!"

Hotaru knocked her on the head one more time for good measure. "Don't think that just because I'm not leaving, that means I'm okay with this."

"I know, and I'm sorry that I broke the L.A.W. rule, but I'll make it up to you somehow, I swear! Whatever you want, I'll do it!" At that moment, the store door opened and an employee lifted the metal gate. She looked up and blinked in surprise when she saw them standing there.

"Oh. Here early?" She smiled. "You guys are really eager, huh?"

"Yeah!" Mikan thrusted her fist up in the air. "We're trying to be _sexy_!"

"You are, not me."

As Hotaru followed a bouncing Mikan into the store, she pondered the event that led to her rash decision. It seemed typical, but there was something about it that mystified her. Mikan had been ceaselessly made fun of by Natsume for the underwear she wore; why would she choose now to suddenly switch to something so drastic?

Unless, of course, she really believed that he didn't think she was sexy. In that case, things were about to get interesting...

* * *

_I return from the dead rusty and with such a dry story pls don't kill me_

_Err, expect a lot of AU stories like this in the future because my love of GA has dwindled to almost nothing but I spent so much time learning the characters' personality that I didn't want to drop it all so now it's just a series to waste ideas on until I get confident enough to write for my other fandoms._

_Yeah I still love you all though~ Also, new FFN is confusing._

_~Ariisha-chan_


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